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Saturday, October 17, 2015

Thursday's scavenger hunt

Wednesday night it rained, it rained all night and most of the morning. I won't complain about it because California really needs this kind of slow, steady rain.
I won't complain because we've been so lucky to have such a string of beautiful sunny days. I won't complain because the low clouds hanging over the mountain tops are really interesting to look at. I won't complain because it forced us to take time to look a little closer at this neat little town. Instead of heading out for another jaw dropping jaunt, we decided to take ourselves on a bit of a scavenger hunt to find all the neat murals around Bishop.

Some of the murals were right along 395, obvious to all. Some were hidden on side streets, and some were pretty well camouflaged in plain sight. Some were whimsical, some historical, some memorialized famous or infamous folks, one was a very thinly veiled political statement, some were painted just "because". A few of them were too big to fit in one photo, a few were in separate panels, one was a tryptich, one was made up of individual tiles, and a couple were quite small.

Kittie Lee Inn
built in 1924 it was the height of luxury and many movie stars stayed there.
During WW11, the dining room was turned into
a dorm for military pilots training at the Bishop Airport

The Slim Princess
was the name the locals gave to the railroad line
in Laws, CA.

All were quite detailed and some were really quite funny when you looked closely.

Will Rogers in Bishop

one of its many silly details

A Dangerous Arrest
this little mural was on the Police Dept. wall

4-H Quilt
honors 4-H children and their accomplishments

Drain
one of the smaller and more controversial murals

History of Medicine and Local Pharmacy
two of the five panels above Dwayne' Friendly Pharmacy

Young at Heart

Bishop Miner's Mural

Celebrating the Sierras
this mural of ceramic tiles depicts 237 species of flora and fauna of the Eastern Sierras
and each tile was hand sculpted and painted by community members

The Earnest Kinney Teamster Family Mural
two of the three panels depicting the roll of horses and mules in settling the area

Father Crowley
a legendary figure in this area, Crowley Lake is named for him

Bishop Bakery, 1922

Trompe l'oiel Mural
Mural Society founder is painted as in real life

This last mural was my favorite. We drove past it twice before realizing that these windows weren't real. Well, atleast 2 of them weren't real. The one around the corner (without the window box) is in a real estate office and the woman inside enjoyed watching me photograph the painting!

During the day, skies cleared and we enjoyed our mural search in the sun. On our way home, clouds lowered again and rain fell over the White Mountains to our east, providing us with this beautiful rainbow.

We met Pam and John for dinner at Holy Smokes BBQ, our quickest meal ever. We ordered at the counter and by the time we got to our table the food had arrived! Quite a contrast to the hour plus spent at Thai Thai the night before but just as yummy.

Later that night, as I sat in front of this laptop working on the blog, the Rose Robber struck again. I heard the door slam, looked up and saw his latest offering....